a. Field of Invention
The invention relates to utility carts for voting equipment and, more particularly, to a specially-adapted multi-compartmentalized utility cart for storage, transport and or deployment of four touch voting terminals needed to create a quadrangle of private voting stations (one or more being ADA-compliant), all without moving the equipment off the utility cart.
b. Background of the Invention
Due to the infrequent nature of public elections, voting equipment is kept in storage for each voting precinct, normally at a central storage warehouse, and at elections, utility carts are used for transporting the equipment from storage to a public forum, and vice versa after the election. Voting machines are valuable electronic devices and are heavy. Thus, a very robust utility cart is required to carry such devices. Still, elderly election officials often experience great difficulty in moving, lifting, packing, unpacking the voting equipment out of and onto utility carts or tables. Many precincts are now moving toward a paper-based voting system, in particular, a Voter Verified Paper Ballot (VVPB) system station inclusive of touch terminal voting stations for generating punched or printed paper ballots, in combination with a ballot box tabulation station for counting the paper ballots. Voters first use the VVPB terminals to generate paper ballots, then move to the ballot box tabulation station and feed in their ballots for counting. VVPB provides an effective paper trail by which to independently audit the election results. VVPB balloting systems additionally comprise a plurality of separate touch-screen ballot printers or manual ballot marking terminals, for example, to assist disabled voters in marking their paper ballots. Examples of such terminals include the ES&S AutoMARK voter assist terminal (48 lbs. and approximately 1.5′×2′×1′), and the ES&S ExpressVote voter assist terminal (20 lbs. and approximately 16″×19.8″×13″), although the dimensions of these and other balloting units may change between storage and deployment. Typically in the paper balloting system, each precinct will also provide one or more special voting terminals for handicapped persons. For example, the above-referenced ES&S AutoMARK™ voter assist terminal is a ballot-marking system designed to provide privacy and accessibility to voters who are blind, vision-impaired, or have a disability or condition that would make it difficult or impossible to mark a ballot with a typical paper ballot system.
VVPB systems introduce logistical complexity inasmuch as what could be done with a single all-electronic voting terminal now takes both a voting terminal and a ballot box/tabulator. Adding to the complexity, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that people with disabilities can access and use their voting facilities. The ADA's regulations and the ADA Standards for Accessible Design prescribe that some of the VVPB voting terminals and some of the ballot box tabulation stations at any facility accommodate wheelchair voters at the polling place. ADA standards make it difficult to design a VVPB-compatible utility cart that keeps a terminal ready to use by the voter while still seated in a tamper-proof cart.
The present inventors provided a partial solution for this in their U.S. Pat. No. 9,058,708, which describes a voter cart with on-board deployable privacy curtain suspended from articulating support members pivotally attached to the cart. When deployed the privacy curtain suspends itself around a tall substantially enclosed area in front of a voting terminal seated in the cart, and encloses a voter standing or seated in front of the voting terminal. This renders the terminal ready to use by the voter without ever removing the voting terminal from the cart, and so the terminal remains in the tamper-proof cart during voting as well as during transport and storage. However, this creates just one voting station.
The present inventors have now determined that a preferred VVPB station would increase the number of VVPB terminals and separate them from the ballot counter. Specifically, an optimal arrangement would include four private voting stations each with VVPB terminals for generating paper ballots, one being ADA-compliant. Of course, a high-degree of space-optimization and modularity is required to adapt a single cart to deploying four such voting stations in a quadrangle such that the voting terminals all articulate from a stowed position in which they are fully restrained against lateral and vertical motion, to a deployed position in which voters are given full access to their touch screens. Moreover, any transport cart design should keep weight to a minimum with a framework that is as light weight as possible. What is needed is a multi-compartmentalized cart with robust mechanical restraints to protect against shifting of the equipment and yet full frontal and side access to both pieces of equipment to allow access to the consoles.
It would be greatly advantageous to provide a quad-station utility cart for storage, transport and or deployment of a plurality of complete private VVPB voting terminals all without moving the equipment off the utility cart. The present invention provides the foregoing with a multi-voting cart arranged in a quadrangle with multiple reconfigurable shelves for the voting equipment, robust mechanical restraints to protect against shifting of the equipment, and full frontal yet private access to each station achieved with privacy curtains attached to the cart. The cart also preserves each piece of equipment within a secure tamper-proof framework that is as light weight as possible without sacrificing stability and security, and which allows easy removing and off- and on-loading. The design is modular to allow additional carts and/or stations to be integrally changed or attached as needed.
In a preferred embodiment the multi-voting cart is configured as a voting quadrangle with flip-mounts for the voting terminals, at least one voting station being ADA complaint for wheelchair access. A lightweight partition system with deployable privacy curtains is attached to the cart to ensure privacy at each station. The multi-voting cart is easily reconfigurable to accommodate a private VVPB tabulation station instead of the front and back voting terminals. This results in two private endwise voting stations for generating paper ballots, plus a private VVPB tabulation station accessible from the front of the multi-cart. One or more of the stations can be equipped with an optional on-board deployable privacy mechanism to enclose a voter standing or seated in front of the voting terminal or ballot box.